Host Europe Group
References from this period: 3 LinkedIn recommendations, full text. They vouch for the role, not for any one claim.
Proof points: 7
| Role | Product | Situation | Task | Action | Result | Year | Skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head of New Media, Host Europe Group | GX Networks Rename of a publicly listed company | Due to a sale the brand name had gone and the company, a Plc, needed a new one in five weeks. It landed on his desk although he ran online, not brand: known for getting things done. | Rename a publicly listed company, end to end, in five weeks. | The hardest part was agreeing the name; as an old internet company there were domain names and trademarks lying around, which gave options. Then execution: brand identity, corporate website, campaigns, office signage, stationery, email signatures, lawyers, and the stock market ticker. | Done in five weeks. The company became GX Networks. | Jan 2006 - Jun 2008 | brand, domains, deadline |
| Head of New Media, Host Europe Group | New Media New Media department: all online touchpoints, ecommerce, digital campaigns, email marketing and SaaS dashboards across all brands | Promoted from web designer to management team to take ownership of the end-to-end online presence across multiple brands. | Create the department from scratch and run every online channel across every brand: ecommerce portals, SEO, branding, UX, email marketing, blog, development, copy, creative and reporting. | Built a team of five to six. Established KPIs and web metrics to steer the business. Prioritised the development roadmap and briefed the development teams. Introduced self-service support and pioneered site-building tools. Optimised the support centre. Built the affiliate marketing, content marketing and online ads programmes. Scaled SEO to #1 for "domain names", "web hosting" and "dedicated servers". | 123-reg became the first company to register 1 million .uk domains. Sat on the Senior Management Team and the on-call duty rota, still in his 20s. | Jan 2006 - Jun 2008 | turnaround, SEO, funnels, KPIs, roadmap, 0 to 1, brand, marketing, SaaS, startup, ecommerce, domains, web hosting, team leadership, stakeholders |
| Web Designer, Host Europe Group | domain search Domain search on 123-reg: one text field that interpreted whatever the user typed and searched every ending asynchronously | Domain search was the key entry point for upselling hosting, and the UX was clunky. You typed a name, picked an ending from a dropdown and hit search, because each registry needed its own API call. One domain at a time, and users kept hitting taken names. Frustrating, poor conversion. | Nobody asked for it: the shop window of the business was a poor experience and worth fixing. | One text field, interpret whatever the user enters, search all endings asynchronously and show them together. First use of AJAX in the stack. | New revenue up 20% overnight. The approach became the industry standard: if you search for a domain anywhere today, this is how it works. | Feb 2004 - Aug 2005 | API, growth, conversion, funnels, domains, web hosting |
| Sales Executive, Host Europe Group | alternative website an alternative ecommerce website made in his free time | The company website had high traffic (1M monthly visits) but was dated and cluttered. It explained the "why" poorly, and lacked focus and a core funnel. | Unasked, as a sales executive: this could be done better. | Built an alternative version in evenings and weekends, booked a meeting with the brand manager and pitched it. | Sales went up; moved to the web design team the next week and led it six months later. | Mar 2003 - Feb 2004 | funnels, brand, marketing, ecommerce, web hosting, team leadership |
| Sales Executive, Host Europe Group | sales competition First job, answering phones in web hosting sales | Graduated into the dot.com bust with no jobs. Got a foot in the door answering phones at a web hosting company: not his passion, but the way in. | Be good at it while finding the way to the web team. | Learnt to listen to customers by answering the telephone. Won the annual sales competition. Spent evenings and weekends on the alternative website (row 31). | Won the competition. Nobody expected it, so the prize changed from a Psion organiser to a record player, still in use. The alternative website got him into the web team the following year. | Mar 2003 - Feb 2004 | turnaround, SEO, funnels, 0 to 1, brand, marketing, SaaS, startup, ecommerce, domains, web hosting, team leadership, stakeholders |
| Head of New Media, Host Europe Group | 123-reg 123-reg.co.uk, the group's domain brand | Running all online channels for a group whose biggest brand was a domain registrar in a market with several larger rivals. | Keep the registrar growing while the group went through acquisitions and a rename. | Owned ecommerce and every online channel for the brand: the domain search and order process rebuilt earlier, #1 organic rankings for "domain names" and "web hosting", the affiliate programme, online ads and early content marketing through the blog, and the KPIs and web metrics to steer it all. | 123-reg became the first company to register 1 million .uk domains, on a platform doing 2M+ unique monthly visits. | Jan 2006 - Jun 2008 | turnaround, SEO, funnels, KPIs, 0 to 1, brand, marketing, SaaS, startup, ecommerce, domains, web hosting, team leadership, stakeholders |
| Group Design Manager, Host Europe Group | group design Design across the group's brands after the Pipex acquisitions | Via acquisitions the company became part of Pipex, the UK's fourth largest broadband provider: multiple brands, multiple offices, each with its own design. | Manage the web design output for the whole group and keep the ecommerce funnels improving while the brands were being stitched together. | Coordinated a team of designers and developers across multiple offices. Created the project and campaign briefs. Led ecommerce across the brands and kept optimising the order process. Laid the SEO groundwork that the New Media department later took to #1 for the core terms. | Design and ecommerce run as one function across the brands. The platform reached 2M+ unique monthly visits in this period. Promoted to Head of New Media in January 2006 to build the department around it. | Aug 2005 - Jan 2006 | turnaround, SEO, funnels, 0 to 1, brand, marketing, SaaS, startup, ecommerce, domains, web hosting, team leadership, stakeholders |
Tell me about Host Europe
source: Tom's own account
Host Europe Group was Europe's largest privately-owned web hosting provider. In 2017 it was acquired by GoDaddy for $1.82 billion.
This is where I started, and where I learnt the trade - five years spanning sales, web, and leadership. It's also where I learnt *the hard way* about technical debt, waterfall, and PRINCE2.
Career progression:
- Sales Executive (Mar 2003 - Feb 2004): Won annual sales competition, made an alternative website in my free time
- Web Designer (Feb 2004 - Aug 2005): Reinvented domain search, now the industry standard
- Group Design Manager (Aug 2005 - Jan 2006): Led web design across multiple brands
- Head of New Media (Jan 2006 - Jun 2008): Created department from scratch, member of Senior Management Team. Restructured the online order process, increasing new revenue by 20%
Direct answers
- New Media: responsible for all online touchpoints, ecommerce, digital campaigns, email marketing and SaaS dashboards.
- One employer under several names: Pipex Communications acquired Host Europe in April 2004; the company reverted to the GX Networks name in 2008 after selling Pipex, was renamed Host Europe Group in 2009, and was acquired by GoDaddy in 2017.
- Managed all online channels (2M+ monthly visits): introduced self-service support, pioneered site-building tools, optimised support centre, led ecommerce, dominated SEO rankings.
- Product work at Host Europe before it was called product management.
- Company context: a founder-led startup at the beginning. About 150 people when I started, about 500 later, and 2,000 as part of Pipex broadband.
- Information architecture: the alternative site replaced one that was busy and cluttered, and lacked focus and a core funnel[HOST.R3.STORY.ALTSITE]; restructured the online order process UI, increasing new revenue by 20% (2006-2008); introduced web standards improving accessibility, SEO & site performance (2004-2005); at EuroDNS, analysed user flow and redesigned website and ecommerce funnels[EURODNS.R1.TURNAROUND]; Skincoach was organised around a simple spoke and wheel pattern with 4 giant buttons, because elderly testers use the home button to find their anchor and start again[LEO.R2].
source: Tom's own account, direct answers
External sources
Related
- Host Europe Group: how did you reinvent domain search HOST.R2.STORY.DOMAIN
- Host Europe Group: how did you get into web design HOST.R3.STORY.ALTSITE
- Ask: whats your biggest learning from Host Europe TQ.FAILURE.LEARNING
Tell me about the company rename
source: Tom's own account
Due to a sale we needed to rename the company. We had 5 weeks.
Not sure why it landed on my desk - I managed online, not brand - but I was known for getting things done.
Fortunately, as an old internet company, I found domain names and trademarks lying around. That gave us options. The hardest part was getting everyone to agree on the name.
Once we had agreement, the rest was execution: brand identity, corporate website, campaigns, office signage, stationery, email signatures, lawyers, and pushed the change through.
This was a Plc - a publicly listed company - so it included changing the stock market ticker. Fun but a bit scary.
That said, we got it done in 5 weeks. It was an experience!
Direct answers
- The brand name had been sold to Orange; the company became GX Networks, renamed end to end in five weeks, stock-market ticker included.
- The company was renamed GX Networks. Host Europe Group had been acquired by Pipex in 2004; the 2008 rename to GX Networks was the project.
source: Tom's own account, direct answers
Related
- Host Europe Group: how did you reinvent domain search HOST.R2.STORY.DOMAIN
- Ask: tell me about your career journey META.ARC
Tell me about the domain search innovation
source: Tom's own account
20 years ago, I worked for a domain registrar (now part of GoDaddy). The industry standard for domain search was clunky: enter the name in a text field, pick the domain ending from a dropdown, hit search. This was because we had to make a separate API call to each domain registry.
Users could only search for one domain at a time and kept running into domains that were already taken. Frustrating experience, poor conversion.
I reinvented the process: a simple text field that interpreted whatever the user entered and searched all endings asynchronously. First use of AJAX in our stack.
The approach became the industry standard - if you search for a domain anywhere today, this is how it works.
Direct answers
- Nobody asked for it. I thought it was a poor experience at the top of the sales funnel, the shop window of the business, and worth fixing.
source: Tom's own account, direct answers
Related
- Host Europe Group: how did you get into web design HOST.R3.STORY.ALTSITE
- Ask: whats your biggest learning from Host Europe TQ.FAILURE.LEARNING
- Ask: what are your key skills META.COMPETENCIES
Tell me about a time you showed initiative
source: Tom's own account
I'd got my foot in the door answering phones at a web hosting company. I was good at it - won the annual sales competition - but it wasn't my passion. I wanted to do web.
The existing website was dated. The marketing material did a poor job of explaining the "why" of the product, it was busy and cluttered, and it lacked focus and a core funnel.
I thought I could do better.
In evenings and weekends, I built an alternative version. Then I reached out to the brand manager and booked a meeting. I made my pitch and showed her what I'd made and why.
Her response: "Well, let's try it out then."
Sales went up. Next week I was in the web design team. Six months later, I was leading it.
I really appreciate the break she gave me. The website had a million visitors a month - it was a risk on her part. But she backed someone who'd shown initiative and done the work upfront.
You can create your own path.
Related
- Ask: tell me about your career journey META.ARC
- Host Europe Group: how did you reinvent domain search HOST.R2.STORY.DOMAIN
- Host Europe Group: where did you start your career HOST